The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-12-08
APPOINTED UNTO ME.

THE following lines, from an unknown
nut nor, carry with them with deep signii-
canoe tile tremendously solemn truth to
every mans hcart-I MUST DIE. Daniel
Webster, upon being asked what lie re-
garded as the most important question to
which he had ever given thought rrpiie'l,
"The sense of my individual responsibility
to God"
AND SHALL DIE! Tremendous thought !!
This frame,
so costly in its workmanship, and strange,
Will not last always ; but is doomed to
bIeIk
And fall in pieces, like a common vase
OF peri>hable clay. Heavens balmy light,
And all the smiling scenery Of earth,
The grand, the bright. the beautiful alike,
Will perish from these eyes. These ears
Unconscious or a single sound that stirs
Through thc: wide range of being. And
SO active now and full Of strength, will lie
AS withered branches by the fallen trunk
On which they grew, Sapless aud dead.
The blood,
That urges now its salutary stream
Through the whole man, will stand in its
course,
And will, it all the play Of life will stop
III universal death. The tired lungs viii
rest
And thoLght will perish from the slumbcr-
And then the grave will do its work, re-
mote
From human eyes Ivy dissolution foul,
breaking the ulraishtly mess, and turning
all
Back to its own dust.
And SHALL DIE O. can that word be
true?
The hour Is coming when the voice Of death
Shall call for NE | have stood when others
died,
4 sorrowful spectator. and have watched,
As, one by one, life'S crllmbling props
gave way,
Till all were gone AMI the fair fabric fell +;
And it was fearful then, and shook the
soul,
Only to see how death did do his work
But there will he Il tragedy like this
In which the action Of the dying scene
Will all be MINE. Others perhaps may wait
Hard by the spot to tell their sympathy
BY looks If woe and stified s0bS aIIC signs
But THEY will be spectators only mine
Will be actors part. The darkencd room,
The couch OF pain the haggarcd, out
The struggling conflict then, will all be
mine.
And when the last conclusive gasp is
drawn,
And the ebbing of life's stream dies in the
veins,
1t will be said that death has come on ME-.
AND l SHALL DIE! My years Shall have an
end
And shall pass away from the world cye
Lake the state of those who lived before
the food,
My being will be swallowed up-a thing
F0 gotten on the earth-aS the liz ht plunge
OF some small pebble dartcd from the
beach
Upon the bosom of a slumbering lake.
Earth will roll on the sun will still look
down,
And all the stars will shine as they do now
On the broad cOncave Of night. The year
will change
And times will hold their ancient order
STILL
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, in their
Will come and so and months, days and
Will be as now. And men will crowd life $
stage,
As they do crowd it now and in like style
Will play their several parts. each in his
place,
Cities will have their commerce, and the
Plow viii | drive its burrows through the
rural gIebe;
The pride Of lifc-the struggle to be rich
The rush of powcr-the restless rage of
souls,
LabOring to quench their thirst in pleasure S
stream
The war of passion, and the cry of wrath
All Will go on. But | shall have no part
In aught transacted on the mighty globe
Like some light shadow hurried DER the
plain,
shall have passed away forever.